Scholar Salon with Annie Finch: “Poetic Rhythm and the Goddess”

2020 Zoom Salon with Annie Finch

June 24, 2020 3 PM Eastern Daylight Time

“The enchanting chains of chanted language have the power to unite right and left brain, body and spirit, humanity and nature, women and the Goddess. No wonder the word ‘meter’ shares an Indo-European root with moon and mother.”

In this salon, poet Annie Finch explores how poetic meter in oral-based societies weaves spells for healing, worship, and handing down sacred knowledge and myth. After diving with us into the rhythms of Goddess-based poems from Ireland, Sumer, Greece, and India, Annie will close by sharing her own discoveries around the Sacred Meter Spiral.

Award-winning feminist poet and writer Annie Finch is the author of seven books of poetry including Eve, Calendars, The Poetry Witch Little Book of Spells, and the epic poem on abortion Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams, awarded the 2012 Sarasvati Award from ASWM. She is also the editor of Choice Words: Writers on Abortion (just out from Haymarket Books). Annie’s books about poetry include The Body of Poetry: Essays on Women, Form, and the Poetic Self and A Poet’s Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry (University of Michigan Press). Known for her mesmerizing poetry readings, Annie is the founder of Poetry Witch Ritual Performances and has collaborated widely with artists in theater, dance, and music. She is based in Washington, DC and offers online classes for poets in metrical and formal craft, as well as holistic workshops and retreats that share the transformative magic of rhythmic language with seekers from all backgrounds. More at anniefinch.com.

Scholar Salons are an ASWM member benefit. Members will receive a link to join the Salon. If you are not yet an ASWM member, join here. The Salon recording will also be available to members after the event.

May 27, 2020January 9, 2024

Scholar Salon 5

Scholar Salon 5: "Wild Felines and Divine Females as Guardians of Sacred Place"
with Dr. Miranda Shaw, moderated by Simone Clunie, Wednesday, May 27, 2020.

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May 13, 2020January 9, 2024

Announcing Scholar Salon 6 with Verónica Iglesias and Anne Key

“Tlazohteotl: Spirit of Divine Love”

“Tlazohteotl: Spirit of Divine Love”

Wednesday, June 10, 3 pm Eastern Daylight Time

Mesoamerican goddess Tlazohteotl was central to many rituals performed by the Aztecs and those that came before them. Originally from the Gulf Coast region, she represented love in all of its guises, from maternal to sexual partner. Typically considered as the “eater of filth,” her role in ritual and spiritual experience was reduced to a confessor. Through in-depth research into her names, rituals, functions, symbols, and iconography, the multivalent image of Tlazohteotl can finally be fully realized. This presentation discusses the methods of research–which utilizes current concepts of Tlazohteotl by healers in Mexico–and the spiritual experience of performing rituals described in early texts.

Verónica Iglesias was born in Mexico City and has a Masters Degree in Mesoamerican Studies. A traditional healer, also known as Curandera, she was initiated in the sacred knowledge of Mesoamerican shamanism and became a bearer of the Sacred Word. A Priestess of Ix´Cheel, the Mayan Goddess of Medicine, Veronica researches Pre-Hispanic medicine, rites of passage and Goddesses from Mesoamerica. She is co-creator of the “Jade Oracle” Tarot Deck.

Anne Key is an adjunct faculty member at Central New Mexico Community College. Founder of the independent press Goddess Ink, she is the co-author of Prayers to the Goddess and co-editor of An Anthology in Exaltation of Sekhmet and An Anthology of Writings on Priestesses. She co-created The Jade Oracle deck, based on ancient Mexican deities and symbols, with Veronica Iglesias. Anne resides in Albuquerque.

May 12, 2020January 9, 2024

Online Scholar Salons Series on the Way

We’re Adding More Scholar Salons for 2020

Our 2020 conference, like ones before it, featured many thought-provoking and inspiring presentations. We’re aware that the timing of the event meant that some presenters and members who planned to attend were unable to do so. At this time we are expanding our online Scholar Salons series in order to share more of the work of featured presenters, and other new scholarship, with members everywhere.

Scholar Salons are a member service available to current members. If you have not renewed for 2020, you may do so here. You will then gain access to previous Salons, conference recordings, and other resources.

We will announce each Salon in advance with detailed information, and also include updated calendars of upcoming Salons. Plan now to attend:

May 27, 3 pm Eastern Daylight Time

“Wild Felines and Female Sovereignty,” with Miranda Shaw

June 10, 2020, 3 pm Eastern Daylight Time

”Tlazohteotl: Spirit of Divine Love,” with Anne Key and Verónica Iglesias

June 24, 2020, 3 pm Eastern Daylight Time

“Poetic Rhythm and the Goddess,” with Annie Finch

May 8, 2020January 9, 2024

ASWM Scholar Salon: Miranda Shaw on Wild Felines and Female Ferocity

Wild Felines and Divine Females as Guardians of Sacred Place

ASWM Scholar Salon with Miranda Shaw

May 27, 2020 3 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Photo from World Wildlife Fund, with thanks

“My presentation offers an explanation for the ancient and enduring association between wild felines – primarily lions — and revered female figures. Bringing together iconographic and zoological evidence, I will illustrate the highlights of a historical trajectory spanning the Upper Paleolithic and living traditions. The details of art and symbolism (e.g., floral, agrarian, martial, civic, royal, celestial, and cosmological) elicit the nuances of power evoked by the leonine imagery. The nature and scope of the power in turn helps us understand the shared character of the leonine females as guardians of sacred place (caves, settlements, cities, empires, nations). I also consider the behavior, qualities, and distinctive roles of the females of the lion species (panthera leo) in order to understand the reverence for and trust vested in a power shared in common by wild felines, divine females, and women. I draw conclusions about the contours of female ferocity, in contrast to the glorification of violent conquest that accompanied the rise of patriarchy. I will issue a call to reclaim the ideal of female ferocity in order to protect our sacred home, mother earth.”

Miranda Shaw (Ph.D., Harvard University) is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Richmond in Virginia, and a member of the ASWM Advisory Board. Her publications on women’s spiritual practices and female deities in South Asia and the Himalayas include Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism (PUP, 1994), which has been translated into six languages, and Buddhist Goddesses of India (PUP, 2006).

Scholar Salons are an ASWM member benefit. Members will receive a link to join the Salon. If you are not yet an ASWM member, join here. The Salon recording will be available to members after the event.